Introducing Continental Drift, a New Column

Once a month we’re headed to Europe, and we’ve found the perfect tour guide. Jamie Kirchick, a longtime Tablet contributor now based in Berlin and a veteran traveler, has jetted everywhere from Georgia, Tunisia, and Egypt, covering stories including the fraudulent 2010 presidential election in Belarus, ethnic cleansing in Kyrgyzstan, and the Libyan civil war. And he’s no stranger to the U.S. political scene. In 2008, he uncovered racist newsletters published by Ron Paul, which figured largely in this year’s GOP primary.

Jamie has been writing for Tablet since 2009, and readers know him for his exhaustive reporting and incisive opinions. He’s taken on Rudy Giuliani for consulting for Serbian nationalists, chronicled the disturbing rise of the far-right in Hungary, and argued that the United States should follow Germany’s example by treating Scientology like a cult.

In his first Continental Drift column, published today, Jamie takes a look at the controversy over Berkeley professor Judith Butler, who was honored last month with the prestigious Adorno Prize in Frankfurt. He argues that the real scandal isn’t that Butler was feted with an academic honor, but rather that the Jewish Museum of Berlin gave her a platform days later to advocate for a boycott of Israel. Read it here.

Jamie has written for a host of publications, including Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, Ha’aretz, Commentary, the Weekly Standard, and the Columbia Journalism Review. He was previously an editor at the New Republic and a writer-at-large based in Prague for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He remains a fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and was recipient of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association Journalist of the Year Award in 2007.

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